State Standards: RI Middle School GSEs Earth and Space Science
ESS2: The earth is part of a solar system, made up of distinctive parts that have temporal and spatial interrelationships.
ESS2.8- Systems and Energy/ Patterns of Change:
Explain temporal or positional relationships between or among the Earth, sun, moon (e.g. night/day, seasons, year, tides) or how gravitational force affects objects in the solar system (e.g. moons, tides, orbits, satellites).
Students demonstrate an understanding of temporal or positional relationships between or among the Earth, sun, and moon by:
a) Using models to describe the relative motion/ position of the Earth, sun and moon.
b) Using a model of the Earth, sun and moon to recreate the phases of the moon.
Standard 4: Scientific Connections and Applications: The student produces evidence that demonstrates understanding of:
S4e: Impact of science, such as historical and contemporary contributions; and interactions between science and society.
National Standards:
Teachers of science plan an inquiry-based science program for their students.
Teachers of science guide and facilitate learning.
Teachers of science engage in ongoing assessment of their teaching and of student learning.
Teachers of science design and manage learning environments that provide students with the time, space, and resources needed for learning science.
Context for the Lesson:
Today's lesson will begin with a discussion on the handout that was to be completed for homework. As a class we will review all questions and their whereabouts in the text and discuss their context and meaning. Any questions that arise from the assignment will now be answered. Today's lesson will now incorporate the historical significance of the earliest civilizations and their important discoveries to science. The class will be given a graphic organizer to fill out as they progress through the class, filling in the appropriate information in the spaces provided in the graphic organizer. The purpose of this lesson is to provide some concrete evidence to back up the information that is being given to them. Topics covered in the lesson include:
Ancient Observatories- where they were built, when they were built, and by whom.
The purpose for constructing these observatories, and their scientific contributions.
Other methods of time measuring besides the sun (stars, moon).
What length of time the moon, stars and sun can be used to measure.
The introduction of a calendar/ the organization of time measurement cycles.
Introduction to new vocabulary and incorporation of old vocabulary such as (gnomon, lunar month, the names of ancient civilizations, and their ancient observatories, Sirius, North star, etc)
Questions, Questions, Questions.
From yesterday's lab, what mode of time can a sundial be used to measure? (hours, days, months, years)
Can you think of any other mode of time that we can use the Sun for to measure besides hours? (year based upon seasons/ equinox/ solstice)
What mode of time can be measured when observing the moon? The stars?
Do the Sun, Moon, or stars have cycles that we can use that help us in measuring our various modes of time? (Lunar month, June 21 vs Sept 21, Sirius appearing in sky was an indicator of crop planting)
How can we use these cycles to make a calendar?
Why do we need a calendar? Why do you use a calendar? Why did ancient civilizations have a use for calendars?
Why is a calendar important?
More questions will undoubtedy arise through guided instruction.
This lesson will transfer over into the following day due to the amount of information present. Today's lesson will focus on the gathering of the information and organizing it into a graphic organizer. This will allow us the time to discover the individual significances between the technologies, their differences, and how they will eventually evolve into the construction of an accurate calendar. To aid in the students' comprehension, pictures, maps and other visual aids will be presented in front of the class. A map illustrating the scope of distance with regards to where the civilizations originated, and where their observatories were made could be useful. Also, presenting the pictures of the observatories repeatedly will allow the students to more readily identify them.
Opportunities to Learn:
Reviewing the worksheet from the assigned homework will give me a good starting point as to where the students' lie in terms of understanding the material up to this point. It will give me an opportunity to pre-assess the students and to decide whether I need to revisit topics to strengthen the concepts for their understanding. By asking if any students had any difficulty understanding the topics in the reading, or had any questions regarding the information, this will provide immediate feedback for me as to what areas I need to focus on more, and what parts of the text that may be confusing for the students. As I review the worksheet, I think it is important to ask the students questions that are slightly different than the questions attached to the worksheet. This forces the students to think about the question first rather than just read their answer verbatim. It will also get the students into a habit of expecting variance in the way information can be expressed or represented.
Since this lesson is very information based, it is important to provide the students with an opportunity to organize this information and make it useful for them. A graphic organizer will keep them actively engaged in the lesson and will keep their pencils and minds busy. I think that in order to keep the students interested in this informative class, they need to be stimulated as much as possible in different cognitive aspects. For instance, using visual aids on an overhead projector as well as on the graphic organizer will aid the students in identifying and corroborating information to their graphic organizer. Walking around the room while asking questions or guiding instruction will suit better for student involvement and interactions rather than sitting at a desk or standing in the front of the classroom.
The worksheet will exhibit depth of knowledge questions ranging from levels 1 to 2. The questions are designed to educate the students about certain vocabulary and concepts about ancient civilizations and their time measuring abilities. The main goal of this worksheet is to build the students' abilities to search in the text for the answers to the questions ("What is..."), and in some cases, compare and contrast the information with another aspect in the text ("Why is the..."). The graphic organizer will encompass levels 1 and 2 as well. The information that will eventually fill the graphic organizer is meant to help the students in organizing the information for faster recall or reference of information. Level 3 depth of knowledge questions will arise throughout the lesson when students are engaged and fully aware of the flow and context of the information. Although only a few students might be able to answer such questions, it will allow follow-up questions to arise from the responses that could possibly allow other students to participate in the discussion with. This also gives an opportunity for the "gifted" students to participate and be challenged, while at the same time allowing the "not-so-gifted" students an opportunity to participate when a follow-up question is asked that is in line with their level of understanding.
Since this is a middle school science classroom, I had already pictured the setup of the classroom to be in a grouped format. It is easier to group the students this way when tables are used instead of individual desks. In my classroom I would utilize 2 tables per group, which would seat about 6 students per group.
Prior to the lesson the student should have completed the worksheet for homework. To be prepared for today's lesson, I would need to bring to class:
The sundials, if further recording of observations are needed.
The sundial lab paper that the students use to record their observations.
The corrected worksheets from the lesson 1 homework.
Copies of the graphic organizer for every student.
Visual aids (pictures of monuments, maps, national geographic, etc.)
Distinguish the different modes of time associated with time measuring abilities of the Sun, Moon and Stars.
Associate time measurements with ancient observatories/ inventions, and the ancient civilization responsible for the scientific achievement.
Apply modes of time measurement cycles into a larger scale idea (calendars).
Coordinate the previous 3 questions into a graphic organizer summarizing information.
Examine and search for reasons why calendars are important and useful in ancient times and today. (Cultural, scientific and economical significance to people's lives)
The main goal of this lesson is to incorporate previous knowledge about the Sun's ability to measure time on an hourly scale, into other aspects of the natural world around us. These other aspects include the Moon and the Stars, and their time scales. Since we can use the phases of the moon to determine a lunar month, then the moon can be used on a larger time scale. Coordinating this cycle into the Sun's yearly cycle of movement (as seen through its position during the solstices) can provide an accurate means for production of an yearly measurement of time (a calendar). This is the ultimate goal, and is probably not attainable in one class period. Because of that, today will focus on gathering and organizing information about other possibilities of time measurement scales, and their origination through scientific discoveries. This basis of information will be used to fill in gaps and create a larger, clearer picture.
Opening (10-15% of lesson):
If the class needs an opportunity to complete an observation on their sundial, now is the time. Once this is completed, I would start by asking a series of questions to get the students interested and eventually lead into the engagement portion of the lesson:
What unit of time does your sundial measure?
Is there another unit of time that we can use the Sun for for measurement?
How would we go about doing that? What proof do we have? Does it have anything to do with the angle of the Sun's rays? The seasons? Long versus short days?
What other objects in nature could we use to measure a unit of time?
And what does that measure?
What proof do you have that it measures that period of time?
Would you consider that a repeating event that can be trusted to occur constantly "forever"? (a cycle)
Is there a way to group those cycles together to measure a larger unit of time...like a year? How?
How would we measure that to be a year?
And what would we call something like that?
The series of questions like these basically cover the material in the worksheet that was assigned for homework. Did you post this worksheet? They also provide some critical thinking in order to answer. Every difficult question can be scaffolded with other questions, ultimately leading to the answer of the main question. What is the main question/ These questions will incorporate the previous two lessons' material into the material that will be presented in today's lesson. The questions activate that prior knowledge again, making it harder for the students to forget because of its repetitive connection building element.
A question that might engineer some interest in the subject might be , "So what day is your birthday?", "How do you know that?", Why is your birthday on the same day?" "How would you go about determining how long a year is from your birthday?" "If receiving presents on your birthday depended on it, I bet that you could find a way" It is good to think of ways to tie questions to their personal lives.
Engagement (60-70% of lesson):
As I ask the questions, I will distribute the blank graphic organizer to the students. The homework worksheet could be useful for the students when filling in the organizer, so I will not collect it until the end of class. I will however, walk around and take note on who completed the assignment, ensuring that nobody will have the opportunity to answer the questions during class time instead of participating in the activity. I will also distribute the corrected and graded worksheets from the first lesson, for use in reference as well. The bulk of this class will be spent on examining how people used the cycles of natural objects to measure time on various scales. The goal will be to connect how the time between New and Full Moons equates into a measurement of time and one complete cycle. We will look at how the Babylonians used the moon, and how they connected a number of moon cycles together to generate a calendar. We will examine how these early calendars were not accurate and why. We will read aloud passages that corroborate the evidence, look at photographs and pictures that show evidence of these cycles, and ask and answer many questions to develop an understanding before continuing to delve deeper into the lesson. If there is enough time, I would like to examine the relationship between the Sun's year long cycle that is evident when examining Stonehenge, the Pyramids, the Medicine Wheel to the cycle of the Moon's phases. This is the one true way to create an accurate calendar. Before reaching this level of understanding, the students have to be comfortable with the conversions of time measurement regarding the Sun (hours-years), the Moon (day-month), and Stars (planting seasons). By walking around the classroom and monitoring the progress of their completed graphic organizers, I will get a feel for their level of comprehension during the lesson. By asking questions to various students (gifted and not-gifted), I will be able to also assess their comprehension formatively. How will students fill in the worksheet? More reading in class? What will you show on the overhead? It would be nice if you could find some videos that illustrated how these historic sites were used astronomically. It is nice that you're providing this historical perspective, and incorporating different cultures. Should you point out that time is not really kept this way anymore?
Closure (20-25% of lesson):
Revisiting questions from the opening will allow me to gauge how far the class has improved since the beginning of the class, where all they had in terms of comprehension was what they had read for homework.
What time scale is associated with the Sun, Moon, Obelisk, Sundial, Stars?
Can we combine any of these time scales to produce one larger time measurement?
Does anyone have any questions? Students rarely have questions. You can't assume that they understand what they don't ask about, however.
By finally asking the question, "So how would you use the sun and the moon to measure one full year? Hint, start your year on December 21st." and having the students answer this question for homework, it will provide me with an article that represents a level 3 depth of knowledge assessment. After this class, I am hoping that students will be able to comprehend the connections between a series of lunar months and the gap between solstices.
Assessment:
Formative assessments are flooded throughout the lesson through the use of guiding and probing questions, which allows me to judge if the class is understanding/ comprehending the current topic, or needs some more examples to build knowledge. By asking a difficult level 3 depth of knowledge question, it allows students to be puzzled first, then enlightened when they are slowly brought into realization through guided questions that lead to the original difficult question. Nice approach. What is your level 3 question?
The graphic organizer will be handed in at the end of class along with the homework worksheet that was used during class. These two articles will provide me with some summative assessment due to the concrete nature of the students' work. They will also provide some formative assessment due to my ability to notice where students are having difficulty and where they are fully understanding. It gives me an opportunity to address the problem in the next class. Since there is a quiz planned on the 5th day of this week, I will have to have these articles graded and returned to the students by tomorrow to allow them the opportunity to reference all of the information relevant to the quiz material.
Lesson Title: Clocks And Calendars
State Standards: RI Middle School GSEs Earth and Space Science
ESS2: The earth is part of a solar system, made up of distinctive parts that have temporal and spatial interrelationships.ESS2.8- Systems and Energy/ Patterns of Change:
Explain temporal or positional relationships between or among the Earth, sun, moon (e.g. night/day, seasons, year, tides) or how gravitational force affects objects in the solar system (e.g. moons, tides, orbits, satellites).
Students demonstrate an understanding of temporal or positional relationships between or among the Earth, sun, and moon by:
a) Using models to describe the relative motion/ position of the Earth, sun and moon.
b) Using a model of the Earth, sun and moon to recreate the phases of the moon.
Standard 4: Scientific Connections and Applications: The student produces evidence that demonstrates understanding of:
S4e: Impact of science, such as historical and contemporary contributions; and interactions between science and society.
National Standards:
Context for the Lesson:
Today's lesson will begin with a discussion on the handout that was to be completed for homework. As a class we will review all questions and their whereabouts in the text and discuss their context and meaning. Any questions that arise from the assignment will now be answered. Today's lesson will now incorporate the historical significance of the earliest civilizations and their important discoveries to science. The class will be given a graphic organizer to fill out as they progress through the class, filling in the appropriate information in the spaces provided in the graphic organizer. The purpose of this lesson is to provide some concrete evidence to back up the information that is being given to them. Topics covered in the lesson include:- Ancient Observatories- where they were built, when they were built, and by whom.
- The purpose for constructing these observatories, and their scientific contributions.
- Other methods of time measuring besides the sun (stars, moon).
- What length of time the moon, stars and sun can be used to measure.
- The introduction of a calendar/ the organization of time measurement cycles.
- Introduction to new vocabulary and incorporation of old vocabulary such as (gnomon, lunar month, the names of ancient civilizations, and their ancient observatories, Sirius, North star, etc)
- Questions, Questions, Questions.
- From yesterday's lab, what mode of time can a sundial be used to measure? (hours, days, months, years)
- Can you think of any other mode of time that we can use the Sun for to measure besides hours? (year based upon seasons/ equinox/ solstice)
- What mode of time can be measured when observing the moon? The stars?
- Do the Sun, Moon, or stars have cycles that we can use that help us in measuring our various modes of time? (Lunar month, June 21 vs Sept 21, Sirius appearing in sky was an indicator of crop planting)
- How can we use these cycles to make a calendar?
- Why do we need a calendar? Why do you use a calendar? Why did ancient civilizations have a use for calendars?
- Why is a calendar important?
- More questions will undoubtedy arise through guided instruction.
This lesson will transfer over into the following day due to the amount of information present. Today's lesson will focus on the gathering of the information and organizing it into a graphic organizer. This will allow us the time to discover the individual significances between the technologies, their differences, and how they will eventually evolve into the construction of an accurate calendar. To aid in the students' comprehension, pictures, maps and other visual aids will be presented in front of the class. A map illustrating the scope of distance with regards to where the civilizations originated, and where their observatories were made could be useful. Also, presenting the pictures of the observatories repeatedly will allow the students to more readily identify them.Opportunities to Learn:
Reviewing the worksheet from the assigned homework will give me a good starting point as to where the students' lie in terms of understanding the material up to this point. It will give me an opportunity to pre-assess the students and to decide whether I need to revisit topics to strengthen the concepts for their understanding. By asking if any students had any difficulty understanding the topics in the reading, or had any questions regarding the information, this will provide immediate feedback for me as to what areas I need to focus on more, and what parts of the text that may be confusing for the students. As I review the worksheet, I think it is important to ask the students questions that are slightly different than the questions attached to the worksheet. This forces the students to think about the question first rather than just read their answer verbatim. It will also get the students into a habit of expecting variance in the way information can be expressed or represented.Since this lesson is very information based, it is important to provide the students with an opportunity to organize this information and make it useful for them. A graphic organizer will keep them actively engaged in the lesson and will keep their pencils and minds busy. I think that in order to keep the students interested in this informative class, they need to be stimulated as much as possible in different cognitive aspects. For instance, using visual aids on an overhead projector as well as on the graphic organizer will aid the students in identifying and corroborating information to their graphic organizer. Walking around the room while asking questions or guiding instruction will suit better for student involvement and interactions rather than sitting at a desk or standing in the front of the classroom.
The worksheet will exhibit depth of knowledge questions ranging from levels 1 to 2. The questions are designed to educate the students about certain vocabulary and concepts about ancient civilizations and their time measuring abilities. The main goal of this worksheet is to build the students' abilities to search in the text for the answers to the questions ("What is..."), and in some cases, compare and contrast the information with another aspect in the text ("Why is the..."). The graphic organizer will encompass levels 1 and 2 as well. The information that will eventually fill the graphic organizer is meant to help the students in organizing the information for faster recall or reference of information. Level 3 depth of knowledge questions will arise throughout the lesson when students are engaged and fully aware of the flow and context of the information. Although only a few students might be able to answer such questions, it will allow follow-up questions to arise from the responses that could possibly allow other students to participate in the discussion with. This also gives an opportunity for the "gifted" students to participate and be challenged, while at the same time allowing the "not-so-gifted" students an opportunity to participate when a follow-up question is asked that is in line with their level of understanding.
Since this is a middle school science classroom, I had already pictured the setup of the classroom to be in a grouped format. It is easier to group the students this way when tables are used instead of individual desks. In my classroom I would utilize 2 tables per group, which would seat about 6 students per group.
Prior to the lesson the student should have completed the worksheet for homework. To be prepared for today's lesson, I would need to bring to class:
- The sundials, if further recording of observations are needed.
- The sundial lab paper that the students use to record their observations.
- The corrected worksheets from the lesson 1 homework.
- Copies of the graphic organizer for every student.
- Visual aids (pictures of monuments, maps, national geographic, etc.)
Text #1Text #2
Text #3
Text #4
Text #5
Graphic Organizer
Objectives:
The main goal of this lesson is to incorporate previous knowledge about the Sun's ability to measure time on an hourly scale, into other aspects of the natural world around us. These other aspects include the Moon and the Stars, and their time scales. Since we can use the phases of the moon to determine a lunar month, then the moon can be used on a larger time scale. Coordinating this cycle into the Sun's yearly cycle of movement (as seen through its position during the solstices) can provide an accurate means for production of an yearly measurement of time (a calendar). This is the ultimate goal, and is probably not attainable in one class period. Because of that, today will focus on gathering and organizing information about other possibilities of time measurement scales, and their origination through scientific discoveries. This basis of information will be used to fill in gaps and create a larger, clearer picture.
Opening (10-15% of lesson):
If the class needs an opportunity to complete an observation on their sundial, now is the time. Once this is completed, I would start by asking a series of questions to get the students interested and eventually lead into the engagement portion of the lesson:The series of questions like these basically cover the material in the worksheet that was assigned for homework. Did you post this worksheet? They also provide some critical thinking in order to answer. Every difficult question can be scaffolded with other questions, ultimately leading to the answer of the main question. What is the main question/ These questions will incorporate the previous two lessons' material into the material that will be presented in today's lesson. The questions activate that prior knowledge again, making it harder for the students to forget because of its repetitive connection building element.
A question that might engineer some interest in the subject might be , "So what day is your birthday?", "How do you know that?", Why is your birthday on the same day?" "How would you go about determining how long a year is from your birthday?" "If receiving presents on your birthday depended on it, I bet that you could find a way" It is good to think of ways to tie questions to their personal lives.
Engagement (60-70% of lesson):
As I ask the questions, I will distribute the blank graphic organizer to the students. The homework worksheet could be useful for the students when filling in the organizer, so I will not collect it until the end of class. I will however, walk around and take note on who completed the assignment, ensuring that nobody will have the opportunity to answer the questions during class time instead of participating in the activity. I will also distribute the corrected and graded worksheets from the first lesson, for use in reference as well. The bulk of this class will be spent on examining how people used the cycles of natural objects to measure time on various scales. The goal will be to connect how the time between New and Full Moons equates into a measurement of time and one complete cycle. We will look at how the Babylonians used the moon, and how they connected a number of moon cycles together to generate a calendar. We will examine how these early calendars were not accurate and why. We will read aloud passages that corroborate the evidence, look at photographs and pictures that show evidence of these cycles, and ask and answer many questions to develop an understanding before continuing to delve deeper into the lesson. If there is enough time, I would like to examine the relationship between the Sun's year long cycle that is evident when examining Stonehenge, the Pyramids, the Medicine Wheel to the cycle of the Moon's phases. This is the one true way to create an accurate calendar. Before reaching this level of understanding, the students have to be comfortable with the conversions of time measurement regarding the Sun (hours-years), the Moon (day-month), and Stars (planting seasons). By walking around the classroom and monitoring the progress of their completed graphic organizers, I will get a feel for their level of comprehension during the lesson. By asking questions to various students (gifted and not-gifted), I will be able to also assess their comprehension formatively. How will students fill in the worksheet? More reading in class? What will you show on the overhead? It would be nice if you could find some videos that illustrated how these historic sites were used astronomically. It is nice that you're providing this historical perspective, and incorporating different cultures. Should you point out that time is not really kept this way anymore?Closure (20-25% of lesson):
Revisiting questions from the opening will allow me to gauge how far the class has improved since the beginning of the class, where all they had in terms of comprehension was what they had read for homework.- What time scale is associated with the Sun, Moon, Obelisk, Sundial, Stars?
- Can we combine any of these time scales to produce one larger time measurement?
- Does anyone have any questions? Students rarely have questions. You can't assume that they understand what they don't ask about, however.
By finally asking the question, "So how would you use the sun and the moon to measure one full year? Hint, start your year on December 21st." and having the students answer this question for homework, it will provide me with an article that represents a level 3 depth of knowledge assessment. After this class, I am hoping that students will be able to comprehend the connections between a series of lunar months and the gap between solstices.Assessment:
Formative assessments are flooded throughout the lesson through the use of guiding and probing questions, which allows me to judge if the class is understanding/ comprehending the current topic, or needs some more examples to build knowledge. By asking a difficult level 3 depth of knowledge question, it allows students to be puzzled first, then enlightened when they are slowly brought into realization through guided questions that lead to the original difficult question. Nice approach. What is your level 3 question?The graphic organizer will be handed in at the end of class along with the homework worksheet that was used during class. These two articles will provide me with some summative assessment due to the concrete nature of the students' work. They will also provide some formative assessment due to my ability to notice where students are having difficulty and where they are fully understanding. It gives me an opportunity to address the problem in the next class. Since there is a quiz planned on the 5th day of this week, I will have to have these articles graded and returned to the students by tomorrow to allow them the opportunity to reference all of the information relevant to the quiz material.